A 23-year-old drug addict was arrested and sent to the Kampong Cham provincial police station on Sunday for hacking his father to death on Thursday in Kbal O village, Mesar Chrey commune, Steung Trang district.
Steung Trang district police chief Pak Cheat said on Sunday that the son attacked his father Lay Lim, a 63-year-old farmer, twice in the face and head with an axe at about 11pm on Thursday.
“The man hacked his father to death. We questioned and sent him to the provincial police for further action,” he said.
Cheat said the suspect is single and used to work in Thailand. However, he developed a mental illness after returning. He was unemployed and became estranged from his father after not helping him to do any farming work.
The son allegedly attacked his father during the night while he slept on a hammock.
The neighbours reported it to the police who intervened and arrested the son on the same night.
He confessed to police that he had attacked his father. A urine test revealed that the son had been taking drugs on the night of the incident.
Deputy head of the provincial police’s serious crime bureau Chan Hor confirmed that the suspect was sent to his office. He said he is not sure whether the son had used drugs since his time in Thailand.
Provincial coordinator for right groups Adhoc Thim Narin noticed many cases of domestic violence happened because the authorities and NGOs were not participating in community outreach and education.
“This situation becomes worse with the addition of drug and alcohol dependency and illiteracy as well. Some people are not taught about the law, so they do anything they wished arbitrarily,” she said.
The National Police said 32 people were arrested throughout the country on Saturday and over 93.66g of methamphetamine was found and confiscated from them. Twenty-two of them were targeted drug traffickers and the remaining 10 were drug addicts.
